Star-Crossed

Chapter Thirteen: Potions and Parcels

Morning came quickly, the five of us in my dorm room woke with a start, most of us were energetic and lively, aside from Dahlia who looked as though she'd been staring death straight in the face all night long. I'd gone to sleep just a half an hour past one o'clock, while it seemed Dahlia had stayed up far longer.

The five of us got dressed and loaded up all of our supplies to head down to the great hall for breakfast. I slung my tote over my shoulder as Hermione all but ran out of the door of the common room and into the hall, muttering something about how we all were going to be late if we didn't get moving.

Dahlia and Elena laughed as I smiled softly jogging after the two of them as they walked up ahead. Once we were in the great hall, it didn't take long for me to locate my brother and Ron and rush toward them, giggling like mad.

"Has!" I shouted in excitement, breaking away from Dahlia and Elena to rush to my brother. It had been odd last night, sleeping in a bed by myself without him near, but it was far easier than I thought I would have thought it would be perhaps a week or so ago.

"Natie!" He greeted me back, grinning from ear to ear. Ron smiled and greeted me as well, offering a small wave as his mouth was stuffed full of food.

"How'd you sleep, Has." I asked, throwing my bag down and taking a seat next to him as Dahlia and Elena sat down on the empty side of the bench next to me.

"Pretty well, how about you?" He returned as I piled food onto my plate, hardly paying attention.

"Fine, fine. We stayed up pretty late though," I murmured through my own bite of food, "I was getting to know my other roommates. I ended up with Dahlia and Elena in my room, 'Mione too!" I smiled as I swallowed down the bite of toast I stuffed in my mouth.
"Oh- I feel sorry for you." Ron muttered, leaning in close as his gaze flashed to the bushy haired brunette sitting by herself toward the end of the table, "She's had her nose pressed to that book since she got in here. But o' a know-it-all isn't she."

"Hush, Ron." I chided, "She's actually quite nice, once you get past the whole bookworm business."

Dahlia and Elena managed to nod, making their own agreeing remarks as they picked at their plates. Ron only scoffed, turning back to his food.

"So, who'd you end up with, Harry?" I asked my brother curiously.

He grinned, "Ron and I are in the same room. With a couple others, Seamus, Neville, and this other boy called Dean."

"Oh, nice." I nodded, only recognising two of those names besides Ron.

Suddenly we were all startled by the clearing of a throat behind us. We looked up to see whom I'd found out was Professor Mcgonagle, the same severe-looking woman that had led us to the sorting last night, standing above us, holding a stack of parchment.

"Here are your time tables. I'd suggest you look after them until you've memorised your schedule." She noted curtly, "Harry and Natalie Potter," She passed Harry and I two of the tables, "Dahlia Fairburne, Elena Cresswell, and Ronald Weasly." Once she handed out the remaining tables, she strode away, perhaps moving down the table to hand the rest of our class their pieces of parchment.

"Nat," Elena called, bending over the table to look around Dahlia, "What's your schedule like? I hope we managed to get the same one."

I shrugged and then looked over my sheet and read off the classes and times, today was Wednesday. It seemed like an odd day to begin classes, since it was smack in the middle of the week, but given that the start of school was on September first, which was yesterday, it only made sense.