The Boy who died - Ready for Anything

On the way to the common room

POV of Parvati Patil

Percy Weasley, as he briefly introduced himself to us, led us, the new Gryffindors, out of the Great Hall. From the Entrance Hall, we made our way to the common room, which, according to Percy, was on the 7th floor.

Hermione, Ariana, and I fell back a little and I thought about the events of the past hour while the two of them chatted a bit. I wondered where Veatrix had gone, after all, we would have to share a dormitory with her. This worried me quite a bit because we had already dismissed her so harshly on the train. But no one could have foreseen that she would be sorted into Gryffindor!

At least we were now so curious to see our common room for the first time that we quickly caught up with the others and were now walking directly behind Percy Weasley. There we met James, with whom I had already shared a boat. He smiled at me kindly, and I returned the smile. However, we were all too excited to talk much, as the entire atmosphere of the castle was too fascinating.

I heard Percy sigh in annoyance when the staircase we were on suddenly changed direction. Impatiently, we all waited for it to lead us back in the right direction. Two floors later, we had arrived. We stood in front of a large portrait depicting a... well, how else can I describe it? ...a Fat Lady in a pink dress. This very Fat Lady now moved and asked loudly, "Password?"

"Caput Draconis," said Percy Weasley, whereupon the portrait swung aside, revealing a large hole that led us directly into the common room.

I liked it. The room was mostly decorated in the colors red and gold, the house colors of Gryffindor. There were many cozy-looking sofas and armchairs, wide window sills lined with cushions, and a fireplace. "Once we all entered the room, Percy instructed us to remember the password so we could get back in without the help of other students. Then he pointed to the left and announced that the girls' dormitories were there, while the boys' dormitories were on the other side.

I was just turning around to Hermione and Ariana, when I saw Veatrix standing a bit apart from the group. She must have joined us somewhere along the way.

We said goodbye to Percy and the boys and went up the stairs to the girls' dormitories. The doors were labeled, so we had no trouble finding the dormitory for us first-years. There were 5 beds, covered with red and gold bedding, against the walls. Three to the right of the door and two to the left.

Ariana immediately sat on the bed to the right, closest to the door, so I took the bed to the left of it and Hermione took the bed to my left.

Our trunks were in the middle of the room, so I took mine, along with the owl cage with Jenna in it, and placed the trunk next to my bed. With Jenna, I went to the window between Ariana's and my bed, opened it, and let Jenna out. She hadn't been able to fly for too long and would come back when she felt like it.

Veatrix was just unpacking her things on the bed to the left of the door when the girl whose name I didn't know spoke to her. Veatrix ignored her, so the girl turned to us with a slightly desperate look.

"Hey, I'm Lavender," she greeted us, to which we also introduced ourselves. "Do you have any idea what's wrong with her?" she asked bluntly.

"Well, I think she didn't necessarily want to be in our house," I replied quietly. "But sooner or later she'll probably calm down, let's see how things go then. After all, we're in the same house now..."

With that, the topic was settled for the time being. It would have been mean to talk about Veatrix while she was in the same room with us. She was already having a hard time coming to terms with the situation.

Tired as we were after today, we quickly changed and got into our beds. However, I couldn't sleep yet, so I grabbed my wand, whispered "Lumos," whereupon a faint light emanated from my wand, and searched my trunk for parchment, a quill, and ink.

I quietly went to the window sill and used it as a writing surface. Since it was so warm, we had left the window open.

I wrote on the small piece of parchment:

"Hi Mum and Dad!

We arrived safely at Hogwarts and have already met some nice classmates. Padma was sorted into Ravenclaw and I into Gryffindor.

Love, Par"

As I rolled up the paper, Jenna landed gracefully on the window sill and held out her leg to me. She had a good sense of when she was needed.

Gratefully, I tied the note to her leg and whispered to her to take it home to my parents. Then she flew off.

I stayed at the window for a while, watching her until she was no longer visible.

Then I took my wand from the window sill, where I had just placed it, packed my writing materials into my school bag, and whispered "Nox" as I got back into bed.

The others seemed to be asleep already, except for Hermione, who was still reading, so I placed my wand on my nightstand, whispered "Good night" to her, and also tried to fall asleep.