Pevensies at Hogwarts

Halloween

The first week of classes was- for Edmund, at least- quite fascinating. 

He'd never admit it to his brother and sister- who, he'd noticed, had been avoiding him since the Sorting- but he did enjoy it and found the magic very interesting. His new friend, Draco Malfoy, happened to be very much like Edmund. He was stuck up and annoying and moved around like he owned the place. He also tried to make it seem like the magic didn't impress him, but Edmund could tell it did.

His favourite lesson was Potions. Although it didn't seem particularly exciting, and the teacher- Professor Snape- was really intimidating, Edmund enjoyed the sense of accomplishment that came with brewing correctly and he also enjoyed thinking about how the potion turned out as it did; figuring out which ingredient did what. Professor Snape wasn't even that bad to the Slytherins, but he always had something nasty to say to the Gryffindors, which was generally enough to put a smile of Edmund's face.

The people at Hogwarts weren't half bad, either. In fact, the only person he really disliked was Draco Malfoy, because some of the remarks he made were condescending and he was rather mean to people. However, Edmund never mentioned anything and even sometimes joined in, for fear of losing the only friend he had. 

Unfortunately, the said friend seemed to have nothing better to do than make fun of Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived. He was forever sneering at his too-large robes and at the derogatory comments Professor Snape made in Potions. Edmund was actually getting a little fed up of the other boy, and began to wish he could just have spoken to Potter like he had been going to do. At least then he wouldn't have had to have lied about his family and be stuck with someone boring.

 Oh well, he thought. Too late to go back now.

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Susan was, once again, worrying about Edmund, and it was bugging Peter to no end.

"Look, Su," he sighed exasperatedly halfway through one of her rants when they were in the library just before the Halloween feast. "He's fine. How many times do I have to say it? He's just adjusting. And, anyway, if he wasn't OK, he'd have at least gone to a teacher for help, who would have told us. Also, he seemed pretty chummy with that Malfoy boy. I'm sure he'll be fine."

Susan nodded and slammed the book she had been trying to read for the past half an hour. She piled everything onto her book and turned to Peter. "I told my friends I'd meet them at the Common Room before the feast. See you there," then she swept out of the library, Peter following suit about ten minutes later.

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Edmund was staring vacantly at the ceiling, watching the clouds slowly travel across the sky, covering the stars one at a time. He was sat in the Great Hall just before the Halloween feast, waiting for the food to come, Draco was babbling on about something that a girl in Gryffindor had done that day. He nodded and made noises where appropriate, but he wasn't really listening. 

He was, for the millionth time since coming to Hogwarts, quite bored. He didn't know what it was, maybe the lack of good friends, but he wasn't exactly having fun. The magic was cool, definitely, but he didn't feel like he fit in. He found himself completing homework in his spare time for fun- which was crazy and completely not like him- just to have something to do. Draco was always off bullying someone, or something, and he found himself, more often than not, bored out of his head.

Halloween was no different. He saw everyone else, though, acting like they were having a great time, and he knew mostly his unhappiness was due to no good friends.

He saw Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley- the ginger from the train- laughing with each other and Weasley's older twin brothers, having a genuine good time and felt a stab of jealousy go through him. Why didn't he just talk to Potter?

Then he saw the boy frown and ask a question to the table. Someone must have answered him, because his face turned to one of a slight sadness and he turned to the Weasley to plead with him for something, but he was silenced with the shake of a head and a few words. Everyone else went back to speaking, but Harry was silent.

Edmund was distracted by the food appearing, and he hastily dug in to some pumpkin pasties.

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Peter could hear the question Harry Potter asked.

"Where's Hermione?"

Peter knew who Hermione was; an annoying know-it-all in Harry Potter's year that had no friends and reminded Peter a lot of Susan. Her absence had obviously only been noted by one person who reported to having heard her crying in the girls' bathroom.

Rolling his eyes and thinking no more of it, he turned to his friend, Angelina Johnson, and they began to discuss Quidditch, a sport they both enjoyed, but only Angelina played. Peter had once been a member of the Gryffindor team, until he took a bludger to the leg and was forced to quit. He'd been limping on it ever since.

The conversation didn't get very far, however, when the doors to the Great Hall burst open and in ran their Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrel. He sprinted just before the teacher's table, where he panted and managed to get out,

"T-troll! There's a t-troll in the d-dungeon!" before falling to the floor surrounded by an ocean of screams.

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Edmund heard everyone screaming and frowned. He hadn't been overly-bothered about the troll because he thought it was normal for a magic school. Obviously not.

Even Draco was screaming, which was a sight to behold. His face was stretched and even paler than usual, giving quite a comical effect, and Edmund had to fight not to laugh. 

"QUIET!" Dumbledore bellowed and everyone was. "Now, would all Prefects please escort everyone back to their Common Rooms. No one must leave until we instruct you to."

Once finished, their prefects- he only knew the girl was called Gemma Farley, he had no idea who the boy was- led them carefully out of the Great Hall to their Common Room- which was, luckily, in a different part of the castle than the one's the troll was in.

Most people went to bed, a little tired and stuffed from all the food they'd eaten. Draco insisted, though, that at least the two of them- Crabbe and Goyle, his bodyguards, decided to tag along anyway- sit in the Common Room to find out what happened, and if anyone had died.

They were waiting for a while, and just when Edmund was about to fall asleep, Professor Snape entered, anger on his face.

"The stupid Potter boy," he growled to Gemma- the male prefect had gone to bed ages ago. "The silly boy decided to go after the troll and got awarded for it."

"What happened?" Draco asked, perking up.

"The girl, Granger, went off to 'find the troll'- biggest load of rubbish I've ever heard, but anyway- and panicked. It was going to kill her or something, but then Potter and Weasley swooped in and saved the day, of course, and knocked the troll out. Saviours once again."

"Really?" Crabbe asked, wonder on his face, before he realised that he shouldn't be impressed, and returned to his usual brooding look.

"Unfortunately. And they got points for it. When I'm- but never mind. You four boys should be in bed. Goodnight." And, with that, he swept out of the Common Room.

There was silence for a while, before Malfoy said, "That's annoying. Saint Potter goes and finds a troll and he gets points for it! I bet if that was us, we would have all been expelled. I hate Dumbledore sometimes. You know, when my father first began to work at the Ministry-"

Edmund sighed and prepared himself for a long night of listening to ranting. As was usual whenever Harry Potter did anything.