The third half

Chapter four

"You have a jacket? And your owl? Dea, are you listening to me?"

"Yes, mum, I'm wearing my jacket, Pidgie is in his cage right there, I am listening, you do this every year mum."

"Oh, but it's just as hard each year letting you go honey, please understand that!"

"I know mum, I'm going to miss you guys too, and I promise I'll write."

"Pinkie promise?"

"Pinkie promise."

"We love you sweetheart, see you on break!"

"I love you too, bye!" And she barrels through the wall, not really looking forward to school, but looking forward to seeing the library and her warm comon room.

"And who do we have here?"

"Our favourite runaway Hufflepuff bookworm?"

"Please leave me alone, I'm trying to board the train." She really didn't like the Weasley twins.

"But you were just standing around,"

"We saved you from any incoming carts, you were daydreaming."

"And thanks for that, but please leave me alone."

"Alright." Thank god they know and understand consent. She looks at the train and decides to go to the end of the train, where it's the most calm, because no one wants to walk a long distance from the back of the train to the carriages, when arrived at Hogwarts. But she is getting off track, trying to find a compartment is hard. She manhandles her luggage on board and into one of the storage compartments with help of a dad wizard she thanks afterwards, and she's off with her owl in one hand and her big shoulder bag. She finds a compartment that's empty, takes a seat at the window and starts observing.

There's a small girl trying to shake off a tiny child while laughing, a big seventh year hugging his mother, who almost disappears under her son's length, a mousy haired fifth year who proudly flashes his Ravenclaw prefect badge at anyone who cares, and there's a positively tiny boy in clothes that are too big for him on the side of the platform looking bewildered and alone, she keeps watching him too see if he needs help, but he disappears into the train somewhere, it's been enough, and since a shrill bell has been rung, all the students have entered the train, while only parents are left on the platform. A lot of other students are hanging out of the windows to wave, but when your parents are a muggle and a squib, there's a lonely goodbye for you.

The same boy as before, lugging a trunk and an owl cage after him, enters your compartment. You look up and he startles, he didn't see you.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't see you, I can leave-"

"No, it's alright, do you need help with that?" She gestures at his luggage and he nods, together you haul the trunk onto one of the racks in the compartment. She sits down again, and the boy takes a seat close to the door on the opposite row of seats. He seems to take the message quite quickly and leaves her alone.

"I'm sorry, is this compartment full?" A redhead, no doubt related to Weasley #1 and #2, pokes his head into the compartment.

"No, sit down." He sits down opposite the other boy, almost as if he wants to be as far away from her as possible, and strikes up a conversation with him. Somewhere along the ride a blonde brat enters the compartment, but is chased away after the Weasley and the brat argue a bit. They arrive, and she tries to lag behind so she'll be left alone in a carriage. She arrives at the carriage lawn, to wait for the last carriage to be sent back to take her to the castle. When she gets to the doors she passes some others lagging behind and sits down on her designated seat at the table, in the third year section that has been highlighted for the start of term feast.

The headmaster shushes the rowdy students, the firsties get sorted, and it turns out the small boy in her compartment was Harry Potter, but she can't bring herself to care, and she was right about the redhead being a Weasley, and while the headmaster holds his speech about the restricted section of the library and the forbidden forest and Filch, she watches her table. Hufflepuff earns seven members, three boys and four girls. She feels proud, last year there were less sorted into her house. But then again, the student body has thinned during the war, and Dumbledore has had to fire some teachers.

Dumbledore finishes his speech, and food appears. She eats something and eats a dessert when those appear and is one of the first ones to leave the great hall. She never liked the great hall, as it looked as if it was endless, but it actually had rafters and a ceiling, and she didn't really like to be fooled by magic. The barrels open for her like they do for anyone who knows the rhytm, and she makes a beeline for her dorm, where she feeds her owl, changes into her pajamas, takes a book and goes back to the common room to read a bit by one of the fireplaces. She doesn't know why, but one particular chair by the fireplace closest to the large windows is never taken when she wants to sit in it, so she takes a seat and curls up with her book. The common room is quite busy at this point and most years, the Hufflepuffs sit down and just talk to eachother, so just like the other years, her yearmates sit down around her. It does feel like a family, but she's never been really social, so it's been an awkward experience, being sorted in the friendliest house, but she's managed and is getting out of her shell more and more, even though it's only in the common room. There's a second year who comes to her about half an hour later, saying that there's someone at the barrels for her, a Slytherin. She knows who it is.

"Hi."

"Hey." She clutches her book to her chest when she's exited the Hufflepuff Basement and stands in front of a Slytherin yearmate, the only one she tentatively calls a friend. They both don't really fit in with their houses and they found eachother close to the lake last year. They never really met in their common rooms, because the Hufflepuffs didn't really let other houses enter, as no other house had entered the common room for at least a thousand year, while the Slytherin common room was tto cold for Dae, who was used to a warm environment.

"How was your summer?"

"Uneventful."

"Same."

"Kitchens?"

"Yeah." Dae's friend taps the pear and the portrait swings aside, letting them enter the kitchens. They go to their own corner and silently watch the house elves as they finish up work.

"Your family still likes you?" Dae jokes, referring to the fact that April is an only Slytherin in a household full of Gryffindors.

"Why wouldn't they, they love me!"

"But seriously though."

"Sometimes the Gryffindor overwhelms me, like, Ron decided to 'just' climb the apple tree to get the red one on top and it could've gone wrong in so many ways."

"Wow, that's rash."

"How are you feeling?" It had become a fairly common thing almost immediately, asking eachother how she was feeling.

"Doing alright, I guess, a bit tired." It's quiet for a second. "Harry Potter sat in my compartment on the train."

"Really?"

"Yeah, your brother Ron sat with him, I was at the window."

"They were close to the door, weren't they."

"Yeah."

"I never get why you scare people."

"Me neither! Do I just look so unapproachable?"

"No, you're just, indifferent to almost everything. That confuses people."

"You two needs to go to commons misses, curfew is in the quarter." A small house elf has sidled up to them and telks them the curfew is in fifteen minutes, mainly because of the Slytherin who needs to trek back to her own common room. They thank the elf, and come to a still outside of the kitchen portrait.

"I'll see you at breakfast right?"

"Yes."

"Goodnight."

"Night." They both go their different ways.